Lung genotoxicity of benzo(a)pyrene in vivo involves reactivation of LINE-1 retrotransposon and early reprogramming of oncogenic regulatory networks

Several lines of evidence have implicated long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) retroelement in the onset and progression of lung cancer. Retrotransposition-dependent mechanisms leading to DNA mobilization give rise to insertion mutations and DNA deletions, whereas retrotransposition-independent mechanisms disrupt epithelial programming and differentiation. Previous work by our group established that tobacco carcinogens such as benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) reactivate LINE-1 in bronchial epithelial cells through displacement of nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) corepressor complexes and interference with retinoblastoma-regulated epigenetic signaling. Whether LINE-1 in coordination with other genes within its regulatory network contributes to the in vivo genotoxic response to BaP remains largely unknown. Evidence is presented here that intratracheal instillation of ORFeus LSL mice with BaP alone or in combination with adenovirus (adeno)-CRE recombinase is genotoxic to the lung and associated with activation of the human LINE-1 transgene present in these mice. LINE-1 reactivation modulated the expression of genes involved in oncogenic signaling, and these responses were most pronounced in female mice compared with males and synergized by adeno-CRE recombinase. This is the first report linking LINE-1 and genes within its oncogenic regulatory network with early sexually dimorphic responses of the lung in vivo.